Yukinojo henge / An Actor's Revenge (Kinugasa, digest of the 1935-1936 trilogy)

Teinosuke Kinugasa: 雪之丞変化 / Yukinojo henge / An Actor's Revenge (JP 1935). To the left: Chojiro Hayashi (Yukinojo). Foto © National Film Archive of Japan.

雪之丞変化 / Revenge of a Kabuki Actor [the title on print] / [La vendetta di un attore].

    JP 1935. Director: Teinosuke Kinugasa. Sog.: dal romanzo omonimo (1935) di Otokichi Mikami. Scen.: Daisuke Ito, Teinosuke Kinugasa. F.: Kohei Sugiyama. Int.: Chojiro Hayashi (Yukinojo Nakamura / Yamitaro / madre di Yukinojo), Tokusaburo Arashi (Kikunojo Nakamura), Kokuten Kodo (Dobe Sansai), Akiko Chihaya (Namiji), Naoe Fushimi (Ohatsu), Yoshindo Yamaji (Kadokura Heima), Yasuro Shiga (Hiromiya), Kinnosuke Takamatsu (Nagasakiya), Komei Minami (Hamakawa), Ryoma Kusakabe (Yokoyama). Prod.: Shochiku. 35 mm. D.: 97’. Bn.
    Unreleased in Finland.

    Language: Japanese - with English subtitles - e-subtitles in Italian.

    Print from NFAJ courtesy of Shochiku.

    Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, 2023, Teinosuke Kinugasia: From Shadow to Light

    Viewed at Jolly Cinema, 26 June 2023.

According to Alexander Jacoby and Johan Nordström this print is a digest of two feature length episodes. According to Berlin Film Festival 2014, it is a digest of three episodes originally totalling five hours. Also Japanese Wikipedia discusses a Yukinojo henge trilogy (1935-1936).

Alexander Jacoby e Johan Nordström (Bologna catalog 2023): " A kabuki actor specialising in female roles (onnagata) orchestrates an elaborate revenge on the villains responsible for his parents’ deaths. The most famous version of this story was made in flamboyant colour by director Kon Ichikawa in 1963, marking the 300th film performance by its star, Kazuo Hasegawa. Under his earlier stage name of Chojiro Hayashi, the actor had starred nearly 30 years earlier in Kinugasa’s version of the story, a huge commercial hit in its day, but rarely screened outside Japan. As in the remake, Hayashi (a regular collaborator with Kinugasa) appeared in a dual role, playing not only the onnagata Yukinojo but also the gentleman thief Yamitaro. "

" The source novel was by Otokichi Mikami (1891-1944), a prolific author who earned himself the nickname of the “Balzac of Japan”. He was influenced by a diverse range of Western writers including Turgenev, Victor Hugo, Zola and Oscar Wilde. Yukinojo henge, which was serialised in the “Asahi Shimbun” newspaper between 1934 and 1935, is his most famous work. The Japanese title carries a double meaning; “henge” refers to a costume change in the theatre as well as to a ghost. "

" Kinugasa may have taken a particular interest in the subject matter since Japanese films up to the early 1920s employed onnagata and he himself, before becoming a director, had been one. The film was originally released in two separate feature length episodes in June and October 1935; the first was scripted by jidaigeki master Daisuke Ito, the latter by Kinugasa himself. This condensed single feature is all that survives. " 

" Though Kinugasa’s version lacks the delirious visual impact of its remake, it creatively uses special effects and expressionist lighting, while the period atmosphere is delineated with exceptional precision. The “Kinema Junpo” reviewer admired the film’s high production values, Kohei Sugiyama’s camerawork (which was praised for capturing the aura of the kabuki theatre) and the acting by Hayashi and Naoe Fushimi. The film ended up ranking tenth in the “Kinema Junpo” critics’ poll of that year. Audiences too enjoyed Hayashi’s performance in female guise so much so that he played onnagata not only in the remake, but in other films, including Kinugasa’s own Hebihimesama (Snake Princess, 1940). " Alexander Jacoby e Johan Nordström 

Berlin Film Festival 2014: " Yukinojo’s parents were driven to suicide by three local officials when the actor was just a child. He grows up to become a well-known ‘onnagata’ (a man playing female roles). In 1863, he travels with his kabuki troupe to Edo (Tokyo). When he discovers his three archenemies in the audience, he plots revenge. He engages in a brilliant sword fight with henchmen of the clan leader. He sets the estate of a fraudulent trader ablaze before death overtakes his adversaries in the theater, making it a ‘moral institution’ … The film frames its star, Chojiro Hayashi/Kazuo Hasegawa, who plays several roles, including one female, in a soft, ‘feminine’ light. There is a notable alternation between the traditional bright lighting of the theater scenes, which have a documentary effect, and the high contrast look of the ‘real’ sequences, which hew more to Hollywood lighting techniques. This work was the most successful of Teinosuke Kinugasa’s ‘jidaigeki’ (period films) with Japanese audiences. Originally running more than five hours, it was shown in three parts between June 1935 and January 1936. However, only the 1952 feature version has survived. " 

AA: This version starts with an extremely dense exposé, perhaps because what is left is a 97 minute condensation of a five hour epic. There are abrupt cuts and transitions, probably because of the same reason. The swordfights are breathtaking, the intensity is tremendous also in stunning kabuki sequences. The desolation is extraordinary in the revenge tragedy, culminations of which include a conflagration of the enemies' mansion by the vengeful actor. A great wrong has taken place, and lifetimes are wasted in cruel retribution. The daughter's funeral ceremony is the most inconsolable low point. 

Kon Ichikawa's Yukinojo henge (1963), in colour and Daieiscope, has always been a favourite of mine, and I included it into my MMM Film Guide of the 1000 (in 1995) and the 1100 (in 2005) best films, but I had not seen other film adaptations before today. I should see the Kinugasa and Ichikawa versions back to back to compare them, but certainly Kinugasa has a great deal of fresh intensity in his approach.

I hope that original negatives and other 35 mm sources survive. The print screened today looked at least partly like a duped blow-up from 16 mm. At times the visual quality looked better, but mostly one could appreciate the composition only, not the painting in light.